head to head · open source
headroom vs pyspur
headroom has 73,130 GitHub stars, 5,624 forks, 643 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pyspur has 5,785 stars, 428 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. headroom leads on adoption by 1,164% (73,130 vs 5,785 stars). headroom is written in Python under Apache-2.0; pyspur is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. headroom has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, pyspur 7%. headroom was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (agent, ai, llm), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| headroom | pyspur | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 73K | ★ 5.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-06-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.6K | ⑂ 428 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick headroom if
- You weight community size — 73K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pyspur if
- You want the pyspur feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and pyspur fits your workflow better
About headroom
Headroom is an Apache 2.0 Python library, local proxy, agent wrapper and MCP server that compresses tool outputs, logs, files, RAG chunks and conversation history before they reach an LLM, and it is built for developers running AI coding agents or LLM applications who want to cut token usage without changing the answers they get.
read the full headroom overview →
About pyspur
PySpur is an open source visual playground for building, testing, and deploying AI agents, aimed at AI engineers who want to iterate on agentic workflows without repeatedly rebuilding debugging, tracing, and deployment tooling from scratch.
read the full pyspur overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is headroom or pyspur more popular?
headroom has 73,130 GitHub stars and pyspur has 5,785. headroom has the larger community by that measure.
Are headroom and pyspur free?
Both are open source. headroom is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pyspur under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between headroom and pyspur?
headroom is written in Python and pyspur in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, headroom or pyspur?
Choose headroom if you want the larger community (73,130 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pyspur if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.